Description: This clearly written and engaging book brings together anthropology, psychology and economics to show how these three human science disciplines address fundamental questions related to the psychology of economic life in human societies - questions that matter for people from every society and every background. Based around vivid examples drawn from field research in China and Taiwan, the author encourages anthropologists to take the psychological dimensions of economic life more seriously, but also invites psychologists and economists to pay much more attention than they currently do to cultural and historical variables. In the end, this intrinsically radical book challenges us to step away from disciplinary assumptions and to reflect more deeply on what really matters to us in our collective social and economic life.
Brief description: Charles Stafford is Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Fellow of the British Academy. His previous books include The Roads of Chinese Childhood (1995) and Separation and Reunion in Modern China (2000).
Review Quotes: 'Exploring new horizons in the moral psychology of economic life, Charles Stafford's novel book is bound to inspire social scientists as well as the concerned public in multiple ways.' Yunxiang Yan, University of California